Her husband and son had accused the farmer of negligence, while the farmer insisted that he had put up warning signs on the pasture.

The court ruled that the signs were not enough and that the grazing land should have been fenced off. The ruling angered Tyrol's farmers who see it as a threat to their livelihood in the mountainous region which is a popular tourist attraction.

The Tyrolean Chamber of Agriculture slammed the decision as being "out of touch with reality".

"The ruling is generating a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty among farmers, who are faced with the question of whether they should allow their cows to graze, or whether they should close off the pastures completely," said the chamber's president Josef Hechenberger.